Links, Fun & Games

To follow the proceedings of Digital Book World 2012, the hashtag #dbw12 is a mix of reaction and reporting. Alas, my reporting ended after lunch, as I had to take a break from the conference and go home. I am not sure if I'll be back tomorrow, but the hashtag is full of folks reporting from the different panels.

One highlight today; a full hour in the morning of the opening day devoted to lessons learned from romance ebook publishing, featuring Julie Cummings from AllRomance, Raelene Gorlinsky from Ellora's Cave, Liate Stehlik and Angela James from Carina Press.

The panelists discussed DRM, pricing, and the ways in which digital publishing has created a more adept and flexible publishing model that's better positioned to treat readers as customers and to take charge of their own customer service relationships. Two years ago, romance was part of an afternoon session – this year it was among the first sessions on the main stage. Most excellent.


 

From Ruth: here's a review from a reader at Amazon that takes into account many, many grammatical errors in a Carole Mortimer book published by Mills & Boon:

The story is 180 pages long. At 250 words per page, that is a total of 45,000 words which can be roughly broken down to 6,400 sentences. Out of these 6.400 sentences there are 178 sentences that end with ellipses (…); 121 sentences that end with ellipses followed by a question mark (…?); 93 sentences that end with a dash (-); 26 that end in an ellipsis followed by an exclamation mark (…!); 11 that end with a dash followed by a question mark (-?); 9 that end with an exclamation mark followed by a dash (!-) and 2 that end with dash followed by an exclamation mark (-!).

Whoa. 


Sporcle quizzes are a quiet obsession of Hubby's, but I think this is the first one I've done better on than he has! Sporcle has a new quiz all about Harlequin romance heroes.

I got all of them with 4:11 seconds left. What's your score and time?

Thanks to Matt and Catherine both for the link!


Paul Bogaards' Tumblr post about the hierarchy of book publishing received a lot of Twitter traffic – and thank you to the many folks who pointed out that Smart Bitches is #53. As Secret Agent Dan said, “You're above the Pulitzer!” Which made me laugh – that's hilariously cool. Thanks, Mr. Bogaards.

 


 

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  1. Susan says:

    Heather Griffon is my hero.  I so wanted to give her a “helpful” vote for her review.

  2. PhyllisLaatsch says:

    3:19 baybeeeeee! 😉 it took me extra time because I wrote chairman and a few other things before it gave me #3.

  3. Aziza says:

    Regarding the Carole Mortimer review: are these grammatical errors or a syntax that some might find annoying?

    Many moons ago, I counted around 30 punctuation marks—commas, semi-colons, and colons, I believe—in a SINGLE SENTENCE in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden*. I know I should quote or at least cite, but I’d have to re-read the book for that. Nooooo…! The Walden quotes on HDT’s Wikipedia page back me up somewhat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H…

  4. Aziza says:

    An ellipses joke:

    How do you keep Smart Bitches in suspense?

  5. Lori says:

    I lost time on one that same one due to trying “tycoon” first. I still say that should have counted.

  6. It took me a full 3 minutes and 37 seconds.  In my defense, I thought Numbers 2 and 5 were the same thing.  I was typing things like “adventurer” and “mountain climber” before I finally realized what Number 2 had to be.

  7. Cara says:

    This is why I get so aggravated about the whole “all self-pubs are crap” thing. I want more reviews like that one. There are plenty of books under major publishers that are just as bad. Which is worse, in my opinion, since there’s supposedly a team of people who are supposed to ensure that it’s not crap.

  8. Alison Kale says:

    Somehow I missed cowboy and bodyguard. But, since I couldn’t resist putting down TSA agent for “ability to perform patdowns” I was rewarded when an 11th space popped up, reading: “The most sensual of all federal employees.”

    Yay Easter eggs!

  9. Taylor Reynolds says:

    I was stuck on the “generously sized sceptre” until :48 left on the clock. Are there really more #8s than 9 or 10s?

  10. Lisa A says:

    You mean Billionaire isn’t an occupation?  But it’s in so many Harlequin book titles!

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